The fire at Norwich Central Library was the worst British library fire in living memory.

The building was destroyed and had to be demolished, but in November 2001 a new £63.5m state-of-the-art information centre, called The Forum, was opened on the site of the old library.

In the immediate aftermath of the blaze the local community rallied round - food companies donated refrigerated lorries to freeze-dry waterlogged manuscripts and thousands of people donated old books and pictures about Norfolk to replace the lost records.

The new library, designed by Michael Hopkins, was funded by the city council, county council and local businesses and a £31m grant from the Millennium Commission.